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Tucker Carlson at panel sponsored by Yahoo, Politico and Pioneer Press. The topic: “The Media and Conservatives Go to War – Again.\"Close

ST. PAUL, Minn. — John McCain’s announcement that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin would be his running mate caught the country off-guard — and perhaps surprised no one more than the news media.

Now that McCain’s selection has sunk in for a few days, the press is starting to make some judgments.

“I do think that the choice of Sarah Palin was a real Hail Mary pass,” said Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, echoing language used Friday by New York Sen. Charles Schumer. “They’re called Hail Mary passes because usually they don’t work. But when you see one and it does work, it is a thing of beauty.”

The former Reagan speechwriter had some advice for Palin’s Democratic adversaries: Try to define Palin as soon as possible, before the public gets to know her.

“They’ve got to be thinking, we gotta kill it and we gotta kill it quick,” she said.

Noonan offered her comments at a breakfast panel in St. Paul, Minn., hosted by Politico, Yahoo News and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Sharing the stage with her were Tucker Carlson of MSNBC; Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post; Rick Klein, the author of ABC News’ “The Note”; and Time magazine’s Mark Halperin.

Carlson expressed conflicted feelings about the Palin choice.

“I see this woman living in a part of the country I admire, holding this 30-pound sockeye salmon and I think, I love her,” Carlson said, but added a note of skepticism: “Do you think that McCain or anybody running for president should choose somebody who has more experience at that level?”

For Huffington, whose site is seen as having a liberal slant, Palin’s views on science and global warming were troubling.

Blasting the Alaska governor for saying that climate change might not be a man-made phenomenon, Huffington concluded: “This is a problem with Sarah Palin.”

Regardless of the snap judgments commentators have already reached about Palin, Halperin said it would be crucial for the media to continue examining the vice presidential candidate.

“I think it’s incredibly important in any election that the running mates get a lot of scrutiny,” Halperin said. “I think it’s very difficult to argue that she’s the most qualified person who John McCain could pick. It’s very difficult to argue she’s prepared to be commander in chief.”

Halperin suggested journalists would have to ask “a lot of questions that I suspect Sen. McCain didn’t ask” about Palin.

That wasn’t the only recommendation the panelists had for the news media. In addition to their comments about Palin, they also debated the role that the media has played in the current election cycle and speculated about the future of their changing industry.

Carlson, whose network has been criticized for a perceived liberal slant, said television would suffer if it did not maintain some pretense of objectivity in its reportage.

“I’m not going to attack Keith Olbermann,” Carlson said, but continued: “I profoundly disapprove and am troubled by the model, on any channel, that lacks a neutral anchor or someone who poses as a neutral anchor.”

While true objectivity might be impossible, the host of the former "Tucker" show said, “We should pretend. … One thing we always agreed on was, we may not have reached the ideal of objectivity but we’re all striving toward it.”

“I miss the central anchor, the Brian Williams anchor, who attempts to be almost a physical assertion of the idea that moderation, fairness and maturity are good things to maintain on a news set,” Noonan agreed. “I still miss some of that old world.”

Huffington, who criticizes what she and others call the “mainstream media” on a regular basis, disputed Carlson and Noonan’s perspective, saying that the more traditional model of journalism, in which reporters claim to be above bias, had not been successful at delivering the news.

“We need to understand how we got here,” Huffington said. “We got here not just because of new technologies but because of the complete failure of all the media to deal with the lead-up to the war” in Iraq.

According to Huffington, the media’s posture of objectivity prevented reporters from aggressively questioning the case for war.

Readers' Comments (268)

Well the "soulmates" of Mr. Obama, our liberal press corps were surprised were they? I'm sure they had all their stories and film clips as well as they pals the Democrats ready to launch in case John picked Mitt.

Yeah...........by McCain picking Palin the liberal wolfpack press and their soulmates the Democrats had to ditch their "planned Class-warfare" propaganda theme that MartinKOS starting up with his phone question to McCain concerning how many homes he owned. Still not sure why the Politico reporter didn't check the public records which they did do also, strange or planned coordination? You decide.

Anyways it's been about 96 hours since McCain announce his veep choice, Palin. And in that 96 hours the American people have been treated to more stories regarding Palin's "so-called" inexperience than what we have seen done on Obama in the two years that he's been running. Does anyone wonder how this could be? If our liberal press corps aren't corrupt or bias like they claim then how could we have more stories on Palin's so-called inexperience than we have had on Obama's clearly inexperienced record since he started running two years ago?

The FACT is my fellow Americans Sarah Palin has much more experience than Obama. Obama has zero foreign policy experience and zero Executive experience ...............that's just a fact. Sarah has been the Commander-in-Chief of Alaska's National Guard for two years now and has visited her troops in Iraq. So this inexperience has a BIG HOLE in it. Don't you love the FACTS?

There is a concept that the most corrupt American institution in America, our mostly liberal wolfpack press, and their soul-mates in the Democrat Party need to start warming up to and that is the American people are ready for the pro-Obama propaganda and his media sponsored propaganda. We are not going to allow our corrupt liberal press to "FRAME" the talking points in favor of their pals the Democrats. Let's DO talk about inexperience, and lets's start with the TOP spot on the Democrat ticket. Because that's where the MOST inexperience rests.......................................it rests with the Emperor Without Clothes Or Experience, the One, Obama!

Did you hear that Sarah Palin (pronounced PAY-LIN) really is not pronounced as she said. It is pronounced PAH-LIN but she changed it because it rhymed with STAH-LIN and her being next to Russia and all, she felt she may be accused of being a commie. Really, it's true. She thinks like a Republican.

"For Huffington, whose site is seen as having a liberal slant..." That was hilarious. That's like saying Pravda has a communist "slant." I think the author meant "...MORE of the press is starting to make some judgments." The media was making judgements immediately. In fact I think the "hail mary" reference was out within hours.

“I’m not going to attack Keith Olbermann,” Carlson said, but continued: “I profoundly disapprove and am troubled by the model, on any channel, that lacks a neutral anchor or someone who poses as a neutral anchor.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Carlson there.

But given the fact that Faux Noise exists for the sole purpose of pushing the neocon line I think a balance is necessary.

When Faux even remotely shows that they are attempting to be unbiased I'll push for it in Keith Olbermann.

You are not the only one. Are they saying we will get 60 days of Palin scrutiny, who knows. We do not want media judgements, we want media reporting. Vet here! Vet now! One man selected Governor Palin for the office , and with that selection placed his judgement into question. If the MSM want scrutinize then the citizen reporter has to. The constitution valued the Fourth Estate as a vehicle for reporting decision making facts to the american public. Whether you lean right or left, the media has a responbibility to the average John Q public to keep him well and factually informed.

One can argue whether Palin is the right choice for VP. Some say yes, others no. Just as important, however, is the question of what changed McCain's mind on the experience issue. Did he change his mind? Did he never believe his statements to begin with? Or has he compromised a principle to suit his short term political interests? I have an opinion, of course, but that is a vital question for the media to empha as the candidates demonstrate to the public how they make important decisions.

So, the Republican VP nominee has already started faltering. Her 17 year old daughter is pregnant (again?), her husband is a non-republican, unionized "snowmobiler" and, turns out, she is in love with earmarks, too.

So, of all the Republicans who COULD have been nominated for the VP slot, McCain went for the hypocritical bimbo.

Even Bob Dole nominated a person of substance....Jack Kemp...and look what happened to him.

"Hail Mary" is all the hope they have...and since she is a Pentecostal, I don't think Mary understands when people beg in "tongues" while handling snakes.

Is Mark Halperin full real the same news media that has stayed away from Obama's past, about Obama's rise through the Chicago dirty machine politics or how about introducing Biden to the public because he's been in Washington hundred years the media has done no stories on his shady past, his 5 Vietnam deferments, his dropping out of 1988 Presidential campaign because he lied and stole a British politicians writings and speeches and put his name on it, how about his dozens of on camera slips, No the media has given Obama a free pass but let's start digging into every piece of Sara Palin's life because even thou someone doesn't have to die for Obama to be President it's much more important to vet the VP candidate of one ticket and not the actual Presidential candidate of the other ticket.